The present invention relates to an instrument for removing ticks with a gripping handle portion which is similar to pliers.
Instruments for removing ticks have been known for a long time, and they exist in a large variety of shapes and sizes. Frequently, the instruments are constructed in the form of tweezers. Such instruments are used both in the private and the commercial fields, when ticks are to be removed from the human or animal skin, to which they are attached. Such a removal of ticks from the skin is necessary, since a bite of the ticks may transmit dangerous diseases to the human and domestic animals. Both during the removal by means of fingers and by means of tweezers, it is possible to tear off in most cases only the body of the tick that swells considerably during the sucking of blood, whereas the mouthparts of the tick continue to be attached in the skin. In this state, it is still possible to transmit diseases.
A complete removal of a tick while it sucks blood, can be realized in most cases only with a good feel for gripping or holding and by subsequently twisting out the mouthparts of the tick. In this connection, the twisting motion effects a cautious pulling of the tick. Further, the twisting motion accomplishes a stabilization between the mouthparts and the tick body, so that the known instrument is capable of preventing in nearly all cases a tearing of the mouthparts.
However, the known instruments are problematic, in that despite gripping the tick with a special gripping arrangement, it is not always possible to avoid having the fully bloated body of the tick be squashed and exploded. The risk of squashing and exploding the tick body exists in particular in a strongly bloated state of the tick body. Thereafter, a safe and clean removal of the tick is no longer ensured.
It is therefore the object of the present invention to provide an instrument of the initially described kind for removing ticks, which facilitates an easy removal of ticks from the skin with a simplest handling, even when the body of the tick is strongly bloated.